The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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NEW YORK—Let us hope that the President's recent appeal to Mr. Khrushchev to break the deadlock in the Geneva talks on suspension of nuclear weapons testing may have some effect.

There apparently are two things that can be done. There can be one step to ban nuclear tests below a certain distance in the air, and this will not require "on the spot" inspection, which the Soviets seem to fear. Or, there can be "on the spot" inspection, which the Soviets so far have been opposing.

It is natural that they should think that this is a way to set up a spy network. But, since any action taken must be agreed to on both sides, I would think the obvious fact that they would have as good an opportunity to set up a spy force in this country or in any other country might quiet their fears.

It is good that the long delay in naming a new Secretary of State has ended and it was gratifying to see such quick Senate action in approving the appointment of Mr. Christian A. Herter.

Whether Mr. Herter will gain the same influence with the President that Mr. Dulles had remains to be seen. And it is probably entirely true that there will be no basic changes in the policies laid down, since the President has approved of these.

There is a difference in the way men carry out policies, however, and Mr. Herter's personality is very different from that of John Foster Dulles, and it may have a soothing influence on some people who are making a good deal of trouble for us at the present time in different countries.

And so one can still feel young at 85! Sir Winston Churchill can go to a political meeting and announce that he will offer himself again as Conservative candidate to the House of Commons and be met with cheers! Who could help but cheer such courage?

How many of us, many years young, would dare to think that we might have the strength to carry through a term of office and to meet the heavy problems of the world today? In the newspaper photograph that I saw Mrs. Churchill looks a little astonished by her husband's pronouncement.

We are told, however, that age is in the mind and not in the body, and so we will wish Sir Winston every success. And if he comes to our country next month, as I understand he will, there are many of us who will want to pay him our warm and sincere respects.

On Monday night I attended a performance given by Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall for the benefit of Wiltwyck School. And it was, from the point of view of all those who sat around me, a remarkable evening.

Here was one man, young and slim and gifted, a superb showman and actor, who sang his way into the hearts of a great audience for the benefit of a group of little colored and white boys who have found themselves entangled with the law. Wiltwyck School is trying to rehabilitate these boys, and has bought a new home and hopes soon to be established in it.

These boys appealed to the kind hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Belafonte when they met last summer, and the program on Monday night was the result of that visit. It was a generous and kind gesture, and if good brings its own reward we will hope that the reward comes quickly and in full measure to these two delightful and generous young artists, Harry and Julia Belafonte.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1959, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 24, 1959

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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